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The Gerudo Curse
It was forged in the fires of the Dark World, and its tongue is of Gerudo, which I dare not speak here. Into it he poured his power, his will to conquer. On it is written: "One Belt to submit them all, One Belt to win them. One belt to challenge all, and in the darkness, pin them." This is the One Belt. Remember, champion: it is trying to get back to its master. It wants to be lost. "The Gerudo Curse" has been used to refer to several different things, most often a curse that was placed on VGCW's original championship belt, the green & purple "dose" belt, by Ganondorf following his defeat in the infamous 32-5 match. The following seven champions in a row were unable to win their first title defense. It can also refer to the period between the 32-5 match and the destruction of the cursed belt. Many of VGCW's most famous championship matches occurred during this time period. In addition to the 32-5 match and streak of failed title defenses was Raphael's "Thousand Years of Pizza", Ganondorf's reclamation of the belt and subsequent loss to Charles Barkley, and the discovery of The Glitch Bomb, which was used by a number of champions during this period, even playing a role in the fight that started it all. For a time it was assumed that exposure to the curse had a permanent impact on one's performance, and while most victims did go into a slump after losing the title, it doesn't look like the curse's effects are actually permanent. Several victims have recovered their past glory and one even managed to reclaim the belt. 2012-12-05: Origins After winning his second , Bowser was given a second chance at ending Ganondorf's 1000 Years of Darkness. His previous attempt had been a complete and utter failure, and viewers expected to see similar results in the 30-minute match. Bowser surprised everyone, however, when he managed to pin the Dark Lord an astonishing 32 times, himself only getting pinned 5 times. Secretly, Bowser had been in possession of a forbidden technique that gave him an unfair edge over Ganondorf. It was such a devastating defeat for Ganon that the Triforce of Power was said to have shattered into seven shards. It is believed however, that Ganon placed a curse on the belt before it was taken by Bowser, the first of the curse's many victims. The Curse Lives 2012-12-09: The First Victim Bowser faced two opponents in his first and only match as champion: Adam Jensen, who earned a spot as #1 contender by winning a , and newcomer Link, who came slightly too late to end Ganon's reign and was now known as a drunk. In a soon to be familiar trend, Adam won. Since then, Bowser made only scarce appearances since, fighting only in the occasional feature match. While the reveal of The Glitch Bomb tarnished Bowser's reputation by throwing his defining accomplishment into disrepute, the Koopa King was nonetheless able to claim a narrow victory in a rematch with Ganondorf, proving that he had some genuine skill. 2012-12-12: A Defeat Never Asked For, an Opportunistic Cash-In Having won the previous broadcast's Royal Rumble and angering an unprecedented number of viewers (and even Baz McMahon), Kratos was next to get a shot at the belt. The Spartan fought using every ounce of rage in his body and beat Jensen to the sound of a booing audience. Little Mac cashed in his immediately after Kratos' victory and won, giving Kratos the shortest reign as champion to date. Jensen would recover from the loss and move on to compete in more fights, winning many of them. Kratos, however, was not so lucky: he was never seen again after losing the belt. Some claim he was completely obliterated by the gods for creating such a massive amount of "X-Pac Heat". 2012-12-14: Little McMahon's Last Stand Baz McMahon's corporate champion managed to get some praise for defeating what may be the most hated wrestler in VGCW history, but few pitied him when he ended up losing his next fight. Proto Man covertly used Glitch Bombs to fight his way through a King of the Ring Tournament and crush Duke Nukem's hopes of escaping mediocrity in a special #1 contender's match between the King and the Robot. Mac would get it even worse: Proto used not one, but 'two ' Glitch Bombs against the corporate champion before claiming a title. Mac's loss was the beginning of the end for the Little McMahon Saga, ultimately ending with Mac making one last face turn before being hit by a car backstage. He was in a coma for 5 months before returning on May 15th to help Vamphound overthrow Dracula's reign over VGCW. 2012-12-19: Can't Beat Ape Man While viewers and wrestlers alike celebrated Proto's victory over Little McMahon at first, things quickly started to go sour. It didn't take long for people to notice that something wasn't quite right about Proto Man, and soon after rumors that Proto had used E-Tanks on his way to the championship began to surface. Meanwhile, Proto's next opponent was Royal Rumble winner and, ironically, fellow Glitch Bomb user Donkey Kong. With both wrestlers possessing the key to certain victory, it was all a matter of who used the move first. Unfortunately for Proto, that happened to be DK. The E-Tank rumors continued to haunt Proto as he went on to give performances which varied between mildly impressive and hilariously awful. 2012-12-23: DKC meets CQC The streak of nonhuman champions was threatened when Solid Snake won a to become #1 contender. Despite a valiant effort, DK also fell victim to the curse and lost the title just before Christmas. But this was only the beginning for Donkey Kong: the ape would later return to reclaim the belt, only to be suspended from the company due to his cheating being discovered. 2013-01-01: SNAAAAAAAKE! Snake had to defend the title against newcomer Raphael, who won a Royal Rumble not long after his first appearance. In what was arguably the first display of the kind of ruthlessness that would soon come to be expected of the future corporate champion, Snake fell victim to perhaps the biggest squash in a title match since the infamous match that started the curse. Later on Snake would find himself falling victim to VGCW's third ring break, but managed to break his streak of bad luck afterward by smashing Segata Sanshiro and Barret Wallace in Season 3, the latter match being so one-sided and brutal even the ringside announcers commented on it. 2013-01-06 to 2013-02-01: The Wrath of Raph Raphael went on to become the first VGCW champion to successfully defend his title since Ganon's defeat when he overcame #1 contender Dr. Eggman. But this was only the beginning: three more sucessful title defenses followed as what became known as the "Thousand Years of Pizza". As Raph drew close to breaking Ganon's record, his brutal, barely legal fighting style caused him to quickly rise as one of VGCW's top heels. While his loss to Nappa proved he was not truly infallible, it was not until Ganondorf's claiming of the #1 contender spot that many believed that Raph's days as champ were truly nearing their end. Those suspicions proved to be correct when the Dark Lord defeated Raphael with relative ease. For the moment, Ganon and his fans reveled in the reclaimed glory that was the VGCW Championship. But their celebration would be a short one, as Ganon's first challenger was already waiting to defy all expectations. Whether or not Raphael's victory broke the curse has been disputed. Devout fans of Ganon insist that the curse meant for it to end this way: with the belt falling back into the hands of its creator at a time when the the stakes were at their highest. And while Ganon's victory seemed almost too perfect at the time, the underwhelming performance he gave afterward makes such an idea seem unlikely. Others claim that the curse was resisted by Raphael, but never broken, so when he finally lost the belt, his successor took the curse with it. Still others believe that Raphael managed to gain control over the curse, and used it against Ganon in an act of extremely ironic vengeance. Those skeptical of Raph's ability to do such things may find another possible explanation from two Tag Team matches that occurred later on: the controversial calls made by the referee in favor of Raphael's team caused many to suspect that the ref taking bribes to call matches in Raph's favor. Could he have done something similar as champion? Speculation aside, it will likely never be known what Raph's relation to the curse truly is. 2013-02-18: Hubris of The Dark Lord The stakes were high for Ganon following his victory, with two titles on the line. But Ganon and his fans were confident; understandably so, considering his first challenge came from Charles Barkley, the first man to lose a singles match to Vegeta. Ganon in particular was so confident in his abilities that he ignored his partner Zangief's advice and chose to fight two title matches in one day. But instead of glory, that night's VGCW championship match would only bring embarrassment for Ganondorf. Not only was he defeated by Barkley, but ironically Ganon would be the last person to fail his first title defense for the HIASC belt. Those that believed Ganon's previous victory was fate suddenly saw that fate robbed from him, as what looked like the coming of another Thousand Years of Darkness ended before it could even begin. While many blamed hubris for his loss, there were some who belived that Ganon's own creation, the Gerudo Curse, was the true cause. The Belt's Final Hour 2013-02-28: He's Finally Back (But not for long) The day of Barkley's first title defense started out well. He defeated his old rival Vegeta, advanced to the next round of The Great Tournament, and prevented Nappa from taking his title after Nappa cashed in his Money In The Bank. One more victory and Barkley would have made it to the end of the broadcast with the title. But his last challenger, Donkey Kong, had an ace up his nonexistant sleeve: The Bannana Slamma. Just as he had with Proto Man earlier, DK used the glitch finisher to claim the title. While he only had the title for one broadcast, Barkley did technically win one title defense, so it's unlikely the curse caused his undoing. 2013-03-07: The Last "Dose" Champion Donkey Kong never got a chance to defend the title, as he was stripped of his title and suspended before he could fight #1 contender Gabe Newell. The Glitch Bomb, previously known only to the most observant of viewers, had finally reached the attention of VGCW's management, and it's users, two of them champions during the Gerudo Curse's duration were at last being punished. Management also decided that this would be a good time to retire the green and purple belt. Originally it was planned to hold a tournament akin to The Great Tournament and award its winner with the new belt, but objections from Charles Barkley, Gabe Newell, Dr. Wily, and Ganondorf led to a change in plans: a held on the Season 3 finale would determine the new belt's first recipient. 2013-04-02: A New Age of Champions When the Fatal Four-Way for the championship finally took place during the Season 3 Finale, it would be none other than Charles Barkley who won the match and reclaimed his stolen title. In addition, Barkley would also debut the new championship belt to the ring. The win led many to believe that when Barkley defeated Ganondorf, he was the one to finally end the dreaded curse. Although these theories were thought to be proven wrong when Vegeta pulled the upset of the century and defeated Barkley, there was something wrong. The loss wasn't caused by some ancient curse, but was a part of Dracula's grand scheme. After taking control of VGCW in a hostile takeover, Dracula imbued Vegeta with dark powers, turning the man once considered VGCW's biggest jobber into an unstoppable wrestling machine. Vegeta went on to quickly put down the young upstart Groose, proving that the once feared curse no longer had any presence. and later Groose, showing the curse was now powerless to stop him]] Although Charles Barkley could be considered a victim himself, it's likely that by preventing a second era of darkness and destroying the belt empowered by Ganondorf, he finally brought an end to the curse that defined the title picture during VGCW's early days, a story that all began thanks to Bowser's use of the infamous Glitch Bomb. In an act of poetic justice, the final confirmed victim of the curse was its very creator, Ganondorf. Any further champions losing their first title defenses can most likely be contributed to bad luck or lack of skill. Hilariously, Charles Barkley himself had a glitch in his favor from Season 3 onward. One of the b-baller's legs was weaker than the other to reference Barkley's basketball injuries. This made the AI almost exclusively target the limb no matter how ill-suited their moves were for it, and their ability to efficiently wrestle and win dramatically sank. After Bazza corrected this issue following Barkley's third title win, Sir Charles was shockingly rendered mortal. With Groose's title win, the VGCW championship was at last free from curses of the Gerudo, Transylvanian, and Glitch kind.